Myo Zaw Aung, a coordinator for the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was shot and killed in Kwaytchaung Village, Okpho Township, western Bago Region at 9:30 a.m. on 26 August.

He was shot dead at a betel nut shop near to the liquor store he owned.

Okpho People’s Defense Force (Okpho PDF) claimed responsibility for the shooting, saying that Myo Zaw Aung was targeted because he was a prominent supporter of the military regime.

He was reportedly undergoing combat training with the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia. He also spied and reported on revolutionaries, which resulted in their arrest. He also participated in the apprehension of staff taking part in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and helped in the recruiting of staff who were not taking part in the CDM, according to Okpho PDF.

Following the shooting the junta arrested one person and sealed the house of another saying they were involved in the shooting, despite them having no involvement with it.

On the same evening, 26 August, U Kyaw Min Lwin, a resident of Chinsu Village, was arrested by junta soldiers and police officers under suspicion of having connections to PDFs and being involved in the shooting, according to residents of Okpho Township.

Then, on 27 August the junta sealed the house of Ko Aye Swe in Kwaychaunggyi Village because they suspected him of being involved in Myo Zaw Aung’s killing

A representative of Okpho PDF stressed the men were innocent. He said: “They [the junta] are able to act as they please. Ko Aye Swe was not arrested because he was not present when the soldiers from the military council sealed off his house. Both of them have no connection with us. We don’t know them.”

This sort of behaviour by the junta in the face of losses is not uncommon in Bago Region, according to residents and resistance fighters in the region. Whenever a junta-associated person or official is shot or otherwise targeted junta soldiers and police officers will often randomly arrest people in the vicinity of the attack who had no involvement in the incident.